CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
THE KEY weakness of The Works lies in the all too obvious fact that it is Paul Salveson’s apologia for his journey from being a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) to a recent recipient of an MBE.
Whether by steam, diesel or green technology, he has travelled a long way from his political roots and clearly has a conscience that needs pacifying.
RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation
PAUL BUHLE recommends an eminently useful book that examines the political opportunities for popular anti-fascist intervention
KEN COCKBURN relishes the memoir of a translator, but wonders whether the autobiography underlying the impulse would make a better book
Two-hundred years ago, on September 27 1825, the world’s first passenger railway line was opened between Stockton and Darlington. MICK WHELAN, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, reflects on the history – and the future – of Britain’s railway industry



